You’re the ones who’ve recently tested with 23andMe. Your results have only just come in within the last little while.
One of you is projected to be The Legal Genealogist‘s second cousin. I know you’re female, and your mitochondrial haplogroup is J1c8.
I first saw you as my match in April and, except for my genealogy buddy and first cousin Paula and my nephew, you were my closest match ever on 23andMe. So I immediately sent you an invitation to share information:
Hi! Just logged in to 23andMe tonight and see that we’re projected to be perhaps as close as second cousins! I’d love to share information and see if we can identify our common ancestors. My father was a German immigrant, my mother’s family entirely from the US south (she was born in Texas). Hope to hear from you soon!1...
Lifestyle
Dear Colleagues,
This Monday, November 23, we will have a second chance to vote on a budget amendment that would expand paid parental leave for City of Seattle employees from 4 to 12 weeks for a year, at a cost in the 2016 budget of only $1.5 million. I hope you will join me in seizing this opportunity to provide a critical benefit for newborns and their parents. In doing so, we can help establish the political momentum to extend this benefit to all workers in Seattle next year.
The value to parents and newborns of providing generous paid parental leave is well-understood and uncontroversial. Research has consistently shown that providing paid parental leave leads to better health for newborns, better educational outcomes for kids, more equitable access to the workforce and higher...
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To They Guy I Would Have The Pleasure Of Intimidating,
You’re about to date my daughter, who to me is the most amazing girl in the world. I say girl because to me she will always be my little girl.
To you she might be just any person but to the people in her life she is important, she is strong, she is smart, and she is kind.
My daughter is something else, you know that? She has been through a lot. I know you may be saying to yourself, “Haven’t we all?” But what matters is how she got through it, how she found a way to be there for herself, for her mother, and for everyone else.
I know she is my daughter and I’m a bit biased, but I really couldn’t have been more proud of her.
Besides all of that there are two important parts of my daughter that I feel like you should know...
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Dear Ms. Winterson,
I have a rule about reading books. Unless its for class or Harry Potter, I rarely read two novels from the same author.
I would only feel the need to read another book by the same author if I really loved the first book.
I probably wouldn’t read the second book anyway for the fear that it won’t live up to the first book.
Trust me, I’ve tried. In high school, I fell madly in love with Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits. I was thrilled to find someone who I connected with so I moved onto another novel of hers: Of Love and Shadows. Alas, I was thoroughly disappointed! She was no longer my favorite author! How could this happen? The same “Second Book Syndrome” occurred a couple of other times with other authors.
So I decided that I would never call...
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To Whom It May Concern:
My son is a curious kid. He's high-energy and artistic and he loves thinking deeply. He's a sensitive soul and sometimes the smallest amount of criticism can feel crushing. I could tell you the ideal way to teach him. I'd probably tell you to avoid the stickers. Opt out of homework. Go with qualitative feedback instead of grades. Forget the Class Dojo points and the Firebird Dollars and think instead about being ethical.
But here's the thing: I won't. I'm not going to tell you how to teach, because I've realized something humbling as a dad. I might be an expert on my son, but I'm not an expert on kindergarten or first grade or even second grade. I don't have the professional experience you have. I don't have the contextual knowledge you have.
I'm also...
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Oh how I want you to open up and reach out to somebody now instead of waiting almost a year later. What you thought was a diet, isn't. It's an illness. An illness that makes your Generalized Anxiety Disorder much more severe, that causes depression to keep you from socializing, that brings guilt in to consume your mind, and that plants another voice inside of your head.
Oh how I wish you could be past denial and into acceptance before the physical, emotional, and mental damage. Your long, think, curly red hair will fall out in clumps, your pale skin will turn yellow, the scale will dictate your mood and life, food will become the enemy, and your mind, oh your mind will become so distorted. The sight or thought of food will make you panic, cry, and feel guilty, yet food is the only thing...
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Dear Minister,
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on your appointment as our new justice minister. I have confidence that our country will improve as a result. Sunny ways will bring sunny days.
Part of your mandate is to legalize cannabis. Please accept my input on this very important topic. Discussion has centered on using Colorado as our model. We can do better.
First, we need to cast off our old paradigms.
Cannabis is expensive.
Cannabis is dangerous.
Cannabis requires strict controls.
None of these are true. We must banish fear and prejudice and base our decisions on logic and science.
Cannabis is expensive. Cannabis is actually cheap to produce. It’s a plant, after all. We need to stop growing it in warehouses. One goal of legalization is to eliminate the...
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Dear Fellow Chronic Fatigue Sufferer,
After 20 years of fighting a losing battle with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)…
…and hearing all of the usual crap from the MDs (i.e., “there’s nothing wrong with you,” “it’s all in your head,” “you’re just lazy” or “you had a bad childhood and now you’re depressed”)…
…I finally managed to turn things around and beat this insidious disease without a lick of help from conventional medical doctors.
Actually, the first step on my road to recovery started back in 1993 when a client of mine got very frustrated with me for missing deadlines and being unavailable for work for weeks and months at a time due to the debilitating effects of the chronic fatigue.
I’m a freelance journalist and direct mail copywriter by profession. And missing...
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Dear Patients,
I am writing you this letter to let you know that Chinese medicine is more than just acupuncture. Now don’t misunderstand me, a big part of Chinese medicine is the use of acupuncture but acupuncture isn’t the only tool in a Chinese medicine practitioner’s box. You see a well trained Chinese medicine practitioner will attend graduate school for about four years, including summers. They will take classes in anatomy, physiology, biology, herbology, nutrition, social work, and yes acupuncture but their degree will encompass much more than just acupuncture.
Many patients will come to me for help with pain. They will tell me that they have tried everything and are now willing to give acupuncture a try. Now while I both thank and commend you for coming to me to help you with...
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Dear Mr. President--
As a forensic psychologist and an American, I empathize with your profound frustration, pain, sadness, disgust and anger regarding the most recent mass shooting on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon this week. Tragically, like so many others, it resulted in the ultraviolent deaths of nine people and serious wounding of another nine by a 26-year-old male student armed to the teeth and prepared to take on all comers.
Clearly, Mr. President, you personally recognize what has become obvious: that these evil deeds are in fact occurring more and more frequently here in America, and that we must do something right now to stop or at least slow down this national crisis. As someone who has been writing and speaking about this alarming and...
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